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ESL forum >
Ask for help > writes
writes
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gharbi2009
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writes
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Hi colleagues! We have a reading text in our textbook entitled "I �VE ALWAYS HAD A HEAD FOR WRITES" and I can �t figure out whether "writes" here is used as a noun or a verb. I tried to check in some dictionaries if "write" can be a noun but in vain. Can you help me, please? |
26 Feb 2016
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Mr. TITA
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Dear gharbi, The word "write" can �t be a noun. it is always a verb. I think that this title is used ironically because it isn �t grammatically correct. For example,it can fit as a comment on a boastful person who pretends to be a good writer but in reality, he doesn �t master the simplest and easiest things. |
26 Feb 2016
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alien boy
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It sounds like it�s meant to be some kind�of play on words to me, but without reading the rest of the reading I really couldn�t say. � If you can post�it here then you may get a more complete response. � Cheers, AB� � �
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26 Feb 2016
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almaz
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I�d say it�s a fairly strained play on the phrase have a head for heights. Incidentally, write has been used as a noun since at least the 16th century according to the OED. It�s not exactly common nowadays and tends to be used punningly (John Lennon�s first book, for example, was In His Own Write � a play on �In His Own Right�, since it was something he�d written independently of the Beatles). Alex
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27 Feb 2016
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cunliffe
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Very good, almaz. That sounds very likely and it �s quite a clever play on words. The usual noun from �write � is �writing � e.g. �Her writing is excellent. � �Write � as a noun doesn �t really pass muster, other than in this highly stylised way you see in the examples here. |
27 Feb 2016
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almaz
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Yes, cunliffe, that�s what I was saying (despite its attestation as a noun, "it�s not exactly common nowadays and tends to be used punningly").
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27 Feb 2016
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gharbi2009
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thanks a lot for your help. For AB: the text is about a woman who made her dream come true through her perseverance and hard work. Her dream was to be a novelist. Alex! I think you put your finger on it. Thanks a lot |
27 Feb 2016
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cunliffe
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Ooh, sorry! Just wanting to clarify that. If a child wrote that, it would need pointing out that that is not standard English, even wrong
Edit: gharbi, we posted at the same time. Yes, I think almaz nailed that. |
27 Feb 2016
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alien boy
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Thanks Alex, Lynne, & gharbi. Nice to see my suspicions confirmed ;) |
27 Feb 2016
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almaz
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Ah, just realised that if you�re an aitch-dropper, I�ve always had a head for writes would sound like "I�ve always had a head for heights" (well, it would sound like I�ve always �ad a �ead for �eights  ). And why not? H-dropping was a rich source of punning in Elizabethan drama (lots of mileage in air/hair/heir ambiguity, for example).
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27 Feb 2016
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